RAS question
Which state receives the lowest rainfall in India?
Correct answer: (B) Rajasthan (especially western Rajasthan/Jaisalmer — <10 cm).
Rajasthan receives the lowest rainfall among Indian states, with western Rajasthan, especially Jaisalmer, getting less than 10 cm of annual rainfall.
Explanation
The answer is Rajasthan because the driest state-level example in the question is western Rajasthan. NCERT’s climate chapter states that Jaisalmer in Rajasthan rarely gets more than 9 cm of rainfall in a year, and that annual precipitation is below 10 cm in the western deserts. Jaisalmer and Barmer in western Rajasthan receive the lowest rainfall, while the Aravalli Range limits the reach of the southwest monsoon on the western side. Ladakh’s Leh also has very low rainfall, but Ladakh is a Union Territory, not a state. The question therefore asks for Rajasthan, not a single low-rainfall station outside the state category.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Kerala cannot be the lowest-rainfall state because the low-rainfall evidence points specifically to Jaisalmer and the western deserts of Rajasthan, not to Kerala.
- (C) Assam is wrong because NCERT identifies Assam as a high-rainfall area during the June-September monsoon, unlike western Rajasthan.
- (D) West Bengal is wrong because the Bay of Bengal monsoon branch enters West Bengal and Bangladesh, while the under-10 cm rainfall belt is the western desert region of Rajasthan.
Concept
This tests the spatial distribution of rainfall under the Indian monsoon, especially rain-shadow and desert conditions. It recurs in RAS because Rajasthan’s own western desert climate is a core state-geography theme.